Windows 10 Redstone: A guide to the builds

Admin29-01-2018, 11:311 960

Microsoft never sleeps. Even before the Windows 10 Fall Creators Update was rolled out, the company began work on the next major update to Windows 10, code-named Redstone 4. As it did with the Windows 10 Fall Creators Update, Microsoft has been releasing a series of public preview builds to members of Microsoft's Insider Program.

What follows is a list of every preview build of Redstone 4, starting with the most recent. For each build, we've included the date of its release and a link to Microsoft's announcement about it. We've also kept the list of all the preview builds that led up to Windows 10 Fall Creators Update and the Windows 10 Creators Update, which are below the builds of Redstone 4.

Note: If you're looking for information about updates being rolled out to all Windows 10 users, not previews for Microsoft Insiders, see "Windows 10: A guide to the updates."

[ Related: How to choose the right Windows 10 release channel ]

Windows 10 Insider Preview Build 17803

Release date: January 24, 2017

The big news in this release is a new set of privacy tools that let people see all the diagnostic data their devices send to Microsoft. The new Diagnostic Data Viewer lists all of the diagnostic information gathered, including Windows version, the ID of the device, connectivity information, performance and reliability data, app usage, installed software and more. You can scroll through each "diagnostic” event, as Microsoft calls them, or else search through them and filter them. You’ll also be able to fine-tune the level of data that Microsoft gathers.

To use the viewer, go to Settings > Privacy > Diagnostics & feedback. Turn on the Diagnostic Data Viewer toggle and click the button below it to launch the app. One warning about the viewer: The information it shows is extremely difficult to decipher and will be difficult for anyone other than programmers to understand. So the tool sounds more impressive than it really is. For a full description, check out the blog post "Microsoft introduces new privacy tools ahead of Data Privacy Day” from Marisa Rogers, the Windows Device Group’s Privacy Officer.

There's a variety of other improvements as well, including a new Fonts page in Settings that makes it easier to choose and use fonts. You’ll be able to see previews of each font, get more details about each font, fine-tune and uninstall them. Web developers and typographers get a variety of tools for tweaking fonts. In addition, in this build, you’ll be able to get new fonts from the Microsoft Store.

The Timeline feature has been changed as well. In this build, you can more easily delete activities from your Timeline. And Windows 10’s ease of access features get a variety of changes, including the ability to automatically turn on or turn off scrollbars.

Beyond that is an assortment of tweaks, improvements and bug fixes, including fixing an issue that could cause Windows to get stuck on the rebooting screen for a long time, and another in which Settings would crash if you tried to change the state of the microphone or camera permissions in Privacy Settings.

(Get more info about Insider Preview Build 17803.)

Windows 10 Insider Preview Build 17074

Release date: January 11, 2017

This build offers a variety of new features. Most of them focus on Microsoft Edge. Edge’s ebook reader gets a number of improvements, including a new look and feel based on Microsoft’s Fluent Design guidelines. The reader now provides a consistent interface whether you’re reading a PDF, EPUB book, or web content in Reading View. There’s also a new full-screen view. New grammar tools can highlight different parts of speech as well as break words down into individual syllables. And if you’re reading books purchased from the Microsoft Store, your reading progress, notes, bookmarks and annotations will more quickly sync across the devices on which you read them. If you’re having Edge read a book to you, it highlights words as they’re read.

Edge now stores credit card information and can autofill information on payment forms on the web. It also now supports CSS extensions for OpenType Font Variations, among other new features.

Windows 10’s Quiet Hours feature has been slightly tweaked. In the current version of Windows 10, Quiet Hours lets you turn off notifications between the hours of 12 a.m. and 6 a.m. In this build, you can customize the hours it works. Quiet Hours will also automatically turn on when you play games.

The Windows Settings app has been updated. In an attempt to consolidate settings of different kinds, the Disk Cleanup feature now can be found in Storage Settings, and the Sound Settings page has gotten a variety of minor tweaks.

Microsoft continues to work on better integrating pen input into Windows 10. In this update, you can tap a pen on any text field, and you’ll be able to input text using the pen. What you write is converted to text via handwriting recognition.

Beyond that are the usual assortment of tweaks, improvements and bug fixes, including fixing an issue where Settings sometimes crashed if the window was too small, and one in which Microsoft Edge sometimes crashed when deleting favorites.

(Get more info about Insider Preview Build 17074.)

Windows 10 Insider Preview Build 17063

Release date: December 19, 2017

This is a major build with significant new features. The main one is Timeline, which was supposed to be part of the Fall Creators Update but which Microsoft delayed because it couldn’t get it working properly in time. Timeline is a kind of time machine that lets you see what apps and work you’ve been doing in the past, then jump back to them at the point you left off. It will work across devices, so that if you start work on a desktop PC, when you move to your laptop, you’ll be able resume work without missing a beat. Eventually it will work with iOS and Android devices as well, according to Microsoft.

Timeline works as an extension of Task View, with past tasks shown onscreen in addition to your current ones. You’ll be able to switch among them by clicking on the appropriate thumbnails. You can look at past tasks from the current day or previous days, and move through them all with a scrollbar on the right side of the screen. You can also search for a particular activity. To control how Timeline works, go to the new activity history page in the Settings app. Cortana also works hand in glove with Timeline, recommending activities you can resume using the feature.

Windows 10 17063 timeline

Microsoft

Timeline works as an extension of Task View.

All of Timeline’s features aren’t yet enabled. For now, it works with activities done in Microsoft Edge, Microsoft Office including Word, Excel, PowerPoint and OneNote, and updated versions of Maps, News, Money, Sports and Weather. It likely works with other apps as well, although not necessarily all of them, and Microsoft hasn’t provided a list of which work with Timeline and which don’t. To use Timeline, click a new Task View icon on the task bar, or else press the Windows logo key + Tab, which is how your normally run Task View.

Developers can customize how their apps work with Timeline, including how the thumbnails work. (For details, see this blog post from Microsoft.)

Microsoft has been busy in this build; there’s more than just Timeline on tap. Also new is Sets, which add tabs to applications as a way for you to have various pieces of information in one place directly in the application itself. For example, if you’re in Excel, you could have a tab for your worksheet, another for a web page that has data you want to copy into the spreadsheet, and so on. Microsoft’s Dona Sakar describes it this way: "The concept behind Sets is to make sure that everything related to your task: relevant webpages, research documents, necessary files and applications, is connected and available to you in one click.”

Sets isn’t being delivered to all Insiders who get this update. Microsoft says it’s being released as a "controlled study,” but doesn’t provide details about how many people will receive it. Also, the name of the feature may change, and the way it works may change as well.

[ Further reading: FAQ: Windows 10's new browser-ized UI – Sets ]

Microsoft Edge also gets improvements. Using Microsoft’s Fluent Design guidelines, it now supports a dark theme and has a variety of other minor user interface changes. Edge also supports the new Service Workers and the Push and Cache APIs Web standards, which let web pages send push notifications to the Action Center and refresh data in the background, even when Edge is closed.

Cortana, meanwhile, has gotten a few changes. The Notebook gets a new look, including a feature called Organizer that easily find your lists and reminders. Cortana now also lets you control Spotify using "natural language” to do things such as playing your weekly Spotify playlist, play specific tracks and more.

Fluent Design is being incorporated into more places throughout the Windows Shell, by applying its acrylic feature to the taskbar, Share UI, Clock & Calendar flyout, Network flyout, Volume flyout, and Input flyout. Acrylic lets developers add physical texture and depth to apps. Fluent Design also has been used to tweak the Settings app.

My People gets a variety of new features, including the ability to drag and drop contacts and rearrange them on the taskbar. You can also now decide how many contacts you want displayed on the taskbar — any number between one and ten. In the Fall Creators Update, you were limited to three.

There have also been a number of other minor changes throughout Windows, including the ability to use Paint 3D on screens you capture with the Snipping Tool. Emoji lovers will be pleased to know they can use the Emoji Panel in more languages. There are new privacy settings as well, notably one that lets you set global options for every privacy-related setting for microphone, camera and location access. That will let you disable apps and Windows from accessing these features on a device.

What IT needs to know: The build also has additions aimed at enterprises. The Windows Defender Application Guard (WDAG) will be included in Windows 10 Professional when the next version of Redstone ships. Currently, it’s available only in the Windows 10 Enterprise version.

IT will get some new features for optimizing the delivery of Windows 10, including new policies for Group Policy and MDM to let system administrators throttle bandwidth at specific times of the day, as well as being able to "restrict peer selection to the same subnet, automatically join devices into peer groups by using a DHCP server’s User option or the connection’s DNS suffix as well as the ability to increase the usage of peers by delaying the use of the HTTP source,” in Microsoft’s words.

The Windows Subsystem for Linux (WSL) gets a number of updates, including the ability to run background tasks and run when connected via OpenSSH, VPN, Enter-PSSession and/or other similar Windows remote tools.

(Get more info about Insider Preview Build 17063.)

Windows 10 Insider Preview Build 17046

Release date: November 22, 2017

This build includes minor feature changes, primarily improvements to the Windows Shell, including a simpler way to get to advanced options in Settings and an update to the way emojis are handled so that more of them appear when you type words related to them on the touch keyboard. In addition, Microsoft Edge can now save and automatically fill in preferred information in addresses and related forms. There are also many bug fixes, including restoring the Properties dialog for This PC in File Explorer to functionality.

(Get more info about Insider Preview Build 17046.)

Windows 10 Insider Preview Build 17040

Release date: November 16, 2017

This minor build includes only a few new features. Additions to Settings include one that lets you adjust the brightness of SDR content on an HDR display. Also new is the ability to use shape-writing input on the wide virtual keyboard. (Shape-writing for the one-handed keyboard was introduced in the Fall Creators Update.) The handwriting panel has also been improved, with a change to the insertion gesture and a new commit gesture. There’s also a long list of bug fixes, including an issue where network profiles had changed from Private to Public after upgrading to the previous build.

(Get more info about Insider Preview Build 17040.)

Windows 10 Insider Preview Build 17035

Release date: November 8, 2017

This build is the first in Redstone 4 to introduce a variety of new features. There’s a new sharing feature called Near Share, which lets you share URLs and files with nearby PCs via Bluetooth. Both PCs need to have Build 17035 or above, and both the Near Share setting and Bluetooth need to be turned on in both PCs. Microsoft Edge also gets several new features, including the ability to mute tabs playing audio, and new context-menus options for EPUB books. The touch keyboard now uses Microsoft’s Acrylic design standards, and there are also more than 190 new kinds of keyboards, including more languages and keyboard layouts. The handwriting panel can now better recognize words.

Included are also many bug fixes and minor additions, including updating Cortana collections to support light themes, and fixing an issue in which Store download errors were displaying on the Windows Update history page.

(Get more info about Insider Preview Build 17035.)

Windows 10 Insider Preview Build 17025

Release date: October 25, 2017

This minor build, an early one in the Redstone 4 release cycle, includes very few new features and changes. Ease of Access settings, such as for the Narrator, which reads onscreen text, have been regrouped and made simpler. Microsoft has also made changes to the Microsoft Yahei font used to display Windows user interface text in the Chinese (Simplified) Language so that it’s easier to read. Beyond that are the usual wide-ranging fixes, including one for not being able to scroll to the very bottom of the Start menu using touch when you are in tablet mode on small devices.

(Get more info about Insider Preview Build 17025.)

Windows 10 Insider Preview Build 17017

Release date: October 13, 2017

Because this is an early build in the Redstone 4 release cycle, there aren’t many new features or changes. Cortana gets a few new tricks, including what Microsoft calls Cortana Collections, which are things you’ve already expressed interest in, including restaurants, recipes, things you shop for, movies, TV shows and more. Cortana puts them into organized lists so you can choose any of them easily. The build also simplifies actions taken between Cortana and Action Center. There is also a wide variety of fixes, including an issue where changing time zones made the lock screen clock incorrect until logging out and back in.

(Get more info about Insider Preview Build 17017.)

Windows 10 Insider Preview Build 17004

Release date: September 27, 2017

This build is the first one to feature the 17xxx numbering system. Microsoft notes that the jump forward "is what we do normally at the beginning of development of a new feature update for Windows 10.” The build was done while Microsoft was getting the Windows 10 Fall Creators Update ready, so there are very few changes or new features. It shows off some of Microsoft’s Fluent Design look-and-feel, including Reveal, a lighting effect which is supposed to "bring depth and focus” to interactive elements. You’ll see it on the Start Menu.

Beyond that, there are a variety of minor improvements and bug fixes, including for one in Microsoft Edge where the tab previews for PDFs were black with a white bar on each side.

(Get more info about Insider Preview Build 17004.)

Windows 10 Insider Preview Build 16362

Release date: September 13, 2017

This build, as with the previous one, was created while Microsoft was getting the Windows 10 Fall Creators Update ready, so there are very few changes or new features. Bootup has been changed slightly, so you can see lock-screen customizations, such as whether you get status information from Cortana, before you log in. There have also been the usual miscellaneous bug fixes and minor improvements.

(Get more info about Insider Preview Build 17362.)

Windows 10 Insider Preview Build 16353

Release date: August 31, 2017

This build, the first en route to the Redstone 4 version of Windows 10, is an exceedingly minor one, with no new features. It fixes a very small number of minor bugs, including one in which the taskbar is unexpectedly thick if you booted up the PC while plugged in to an external monitor with a different DPI.

(Get more info about Insider Preview Build 16353.)

Preview builds for the Windows 10 Fall Creators Update

Windows 10 Insider Preview Build 16299

Release date: September 26, 2017; updated October 2, 2017

Note: On October 2, Microsoft released an update to 16299, called Insider Preview Build 16299.15, that appears to be the Release to Manufacturing (RTM) version of the Windows 10 Fall Creators Update. From this point on, updates will be made via Cumulative Updates with Windows Update, rather than through the Windows Insider program.

As with all the builds over the last several weeks, 16299 focuses on bug fixes. In this case they’re all minor. They include one in which Microsoft Edge might crash when scrolling embedded PDFs, and another in which some Insiders’ optical drive wouldn’t be listed under This PC after upgrading to a recent build.

(Get more info about Insider Preview Build 16299.)

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Windows 10 Insider Preview Build 16296

Release date: September 22, 2017

The bug-fix builds are coming fast and furious before the release of the Windows 10 Fall Creators Update. As with all the builds over the last several weeks, and all Redstone updates until the Windows 10 Fall Creators Update is released, this build focuses on bug fixes. This one is the smallest yet: It has only three very minor fixes.

One takes care of a problem in which Hyper-V couldn’t create a VM on third-party network storage. Another fixes an issue in which for the first few minutes after clean installing a non-English build, many inbox app names might unexpectedly appear with English app names. And the third fixed a problem in which gaming apps using WebView with heavy use of HTML canvas might have unexpectedly had very low frame-per-second (FPS) rates.

(Get more info about Insider Preview Build 16296.)

Windows 10 Insider Preview Build 16291

Release date: Sept. 19, 2017

Here’s yet another bug-fix build in preparation for the release to the Windows 10 Fall Creators Update. Note that there’s a serious bug with this build and a previous release, Build 16288.1, in which a Surface Pro 3 becomes essentially "bricked” — it gets stuck on a "spinning dots” screen with no apparent way to get out of it. Microsoft has posted a fairly complex workaround, which the company claims will fix the problem. Microsoft also claims, "We will have a permanent fix with no required workaround steps in our next flighted build that is 16294 or greater.”

As with the last several builds over the last few weeks, and all Redstone updates until the Windows 10 Fall Creators Update is released, this build focuses mainly on minor bug fixes. One small new feature has been added: Cortana users can now resume articles [and] news from their iPhones and Android phones to their PCs from within the Cortana app.

Aside from that, there are very few bug fixes, including one in which Microsoft Edge crashes if you add a Favorite to a Favorites folder and then immediately sort that folder by name.

What IT needs to know: Given the serious issue with this build on Surface Pro 3 devices, you may want to skip installing it and wait for Build 16294 or later.

(Get more info about Insider Preview Build 162891.)

Windows 10 Insider Preview Build 16288

Release date: Sept. 12, 2017

Here’s yet another small, incremental build in preparation for the release to the Windows 10 Fall Creators Update. As with the last several builds and all Redstone updates until the Windows 10 Fall Creators Update is released, this build only has minor bug fixes, with no new features introduced. You may notice that the usual watermark in the lower-right-hand corner of the desktop has vanished. That usually indicates a build is a final one. But don’t be fooled: In this case it isn’t.

Microsoft notes: "This is NOT the final build as we’re not done yet. We’re just now beginning the phase of checking in final code to prepare for the final release. So we will have more builds to release to Windows Insiders between now and then. And the desktop watermark may re-appear in these builds.”

The fixes include a variety of improvements to Edge, including an issue where the tab preview for PDFs was just black with two white stripes, and another in which website tooltips could end up displaying behind the Microsoft Edge window after opening a link in new tab in the background. A variety of other minor changes were made to input, the Windows shell, gaming, devices, and a host of other unrelated ones.

(Get more info about Insider Preview Build 16288.)

Windows 10 Insider Preview Build 16281

Release date: Sept. 1, 2017

Here’s one more minor build en route to the Windows 10 Fall Creators Update. As with the last several builds – and all Redstone updates until the Windows 10 Fall Creators Update is released – this build focuses only on bug fixes, with no new features introduced. Those bug fixes are all minor, including one in which the Train Simulator 2017 game wouldn’t launch and another in which you couldn’t use your mouse because of sudden, brief CPU spikes.

(Get more info about Insider Preview Build 162781.)

Windows 10 Insider Preview Build 16278

Release date: Aug. 29, 2017

Microsoft is accelerating its sprint to release the Windows 10 Fall Creators Update — this newest build is the third in less than a week. As with the previous builds in the last week, and with all Redstone updates until the release of the Windows 10 Fall Creators Update, this build is all about, and only about, bug fixes. The fixes in this build are all relatively minor, such as one in which Microsoft Edge crashed after you pinned certain websites to Start, and another in which the battery flyout sometimes incorrectly displayed "PC not charging” while the device was, in fact, charging.

(Get more info about Insider Preview Build 16278.)

Windows 10 Insider Preview Build 16275

Release date: Aug. 25, 2017

The pace of updates is being picked up, with some coming as soon as two days after another. As with all Redstone 3 updates from now until the Windows 10 Fall Creators Update is released, this build focuses on bug fixes. No new features are in it.

There are no major fixes, either, only very minor ones, including taking care of an issue that caused minimized per-monitor DPI-aware windows to miss DPI changes and end up with a mix of DPI scaling upon restoring. Also fixed was an issue that caused in the taskbar to be unexpectedly thick if you booted up the PC while plugged in to an external monitor with a different DPI.

(Get more info about Insider Preview Build 16275.)

Windows 10 Insider Preview Build 16273

Release date: Aug. 23, 2017

With this build, Microsoft starts to make a sprint toward releasing the Windows 10 Fall Creators Update. The builds have been branched into their own "fork,” called RS3_RELEASE — the exact same thing Microsoft did when it began to get close to releasing the Windows 10 Creators Update, when it branched into RS2_RELEASE.

Dona Sarkar, software engineer with Microsoft’s Windows and Devices Group, explains, "We are now at the point of the development cycle for the Windows 10 Fall Creators Update where our focus is now on stabilization for release to the world. This means that we intend to release these builds to Insiders more quickly to both the Fast and Slow rings as these builds [will] include mostly bug fixes.”

So don’t expect many feature changes, and expect those that are released to be minor. This build shows that. It has a new font called Bahnschrift, but apart from that, it’s mainly bug fixes, including one in which the Action Center icon showed it had a number of notifications that weren’t really there. Quite a few bugs were squashed in the Edge browser, including one in which some websites did not render correctly in inPrivate mode.

What IT should know: If you want to get a peek at what the Windows 10 Fall Creators Update will look like, this is a good build to try, although of course it can be buggy. Also see our story "Windows 10 Fall Creators Update: 9 key enterprise features.”

(Get more info about Insider Preview Build 16273.)

Install Windows S: In other Redstone news, you can now install a preview version of Windows S, Microsoft’s stripped-down version of Windows. To do it, download the setup tool — but you should check out the information at the following links before installing:

Windows 10 S FAQ

Supported Devices and Drivers

Installing Office

Office on Windows 10 S FAQ

Windows 10 Insider Preview Build 16257

Release date: Aug. 2, 2017

This build introduces the beta of a new feature called Eye Control, which lets people with disabilities control Windows by operating an on-screen mouse, keyboard, and the text-to-speech experience using only their eyes. It requires a compatible eye tracker, such as the Tobii Eye Tracker 4C. In this beta, only the EN-US keyboard is supported, but more keyboard layouts are expected to be supported eventually. Because it is in beta, there are a number of issues with Eye Control, including that it does not work well in direct sunlight. Also, when moving to a location with different lighting conditions, the device being used may need to be recalibrated.

Microsoft continues to tweak the Edge browser, giving the browser frame a more "modern” look inspired by the Fluent Design System, according to Microsoft. The tab bar and other controls are given depth and transparency, and the button animations are now more responsive.

The Windows Defender Application Guard, which provides security for Edge, has also received a variety of minor improvements and fixes, including a faster launch time and fixes to a variety of bugs.

There are also the usual bug fixes and minor changes, including one in which if you switched to a new tab and back in Microsoft Edge, Narrator would start reading from the top of the page again, rather than remember where you had been on the page. Also addressed is a bug in which some Insiders were not being offered builds higher than Build 16241.

(Get more info about Insider Preview Build 16257.)

Windows 10 Insider Preview Build 16251

Release date: July 26, 2017

This build makes modest changes to Cortana, boot-up, and input, along with a variety of other minor additions. The biggest addition is that Windows PCs can now be linked to Android phones for simultaneous browsing. (iPhone support will come in a later build.) To use the feature, go to Settings > Phone and follow the prompts for linking your phone to your PC. After that, you’ll get an SMS to install a test app for Android that will link the two. This will let your phone and PC to browse the same websites simultaneously; when you’re browsing with your phone, you’ll be able to tell it to open the same websites on your PC.

The new build also lets you get a variety of web results in Cortana rather than your browser, including about movies, celebrities, stock prices, flight status and more. And you can now also use Cortana’s voice commands to lock your PC, sign out of Windows, shut down, and turn off your PC.

There’s also a new boot-up feature that signs you into Windows faster and can automatically restart your applications. There are also a host of minor input improvements, including softening the typing sound on the touch keyboard, and making two-finger precision touchpad scrolling feel smoother.

Finally, you’ll find the usual bug fixes and minor changes, including resolving bugs that crash or hang Microsoft Edge and an issue that caused the insertion point of the mouse cursor to appear white, making it invisible against the white background of many text boxes.

(Get more info about Insider Preview Build 16251.)

Windows 10 Insider Preview Build 16241

Release date: July 13, 2017

This build makes a number of small changes to Windows Shell, Task Manager, the way uploads and downloads are handled, and other parts of Windows.

You can now recover your pin and password from the lock screen by clicking "Reset password” or "I forgot my PIN” and following the prompts. You can then return to the lock screen and log in with your new credentials.

Also in this build, Microsoft continues its ongoing tweaking of the newly added GPU section of the Task Manager’s Performance tab. For example, the name of each GPU is now shown on the left-hand side of the Performance tab. The Task Manager gets one more change: Microsoft Edge’s processes are given more descriptive labels throughout Task Manager.

The Delivery Optimization page in Settings gets two new additions. One allows you to configure a variety of download and upload settings, such as limiting bandwidth for uploads and downloads. Also added to the page is an activity monitor that shows how much data is being received or sent from your PC.

There are also the usual bug fixes, including one where the battery status on certain laptops wasn’t updating while the device was unplugged, and other minor changes.

What IT needs to know: One of Microsoft’s regular Bug Bashes is still ongoing, and will end at 11:59 p.m. (Pacific Daylight Time) on Sunday, July 23rd.

(Get more info about Insider Preview Build 16241.)

Windows 10 Insider Preview Build 16237

Release date: July 7, 2017

This build makes a variety of miscellaneous changes throughout Windows, including Microsoft Edge, the Windows shell, gaming, the Task Manager, and improvements to input. Microsoft Edge gets a read-aloud feature, which will read the contents of a web page. It can also read PDFs out loud. Edge also gets a variety of bug fixes and very minor interface tweaks.

In the Windows shell, you no longer have to log out and back into Windows to fix the problem of blurry desktop applications after docking, undocking or using remote access. In addition, the Action Center gets a variety of small improvements. Notification buttons now span the entire bottom of the notification, instead of being justified to the right. You can also expand the first notification in each notification group in the Action Center, so you can easily eyeball emails, snooze reminders, and accomplish other tasks without having to individually expand every notification.

As for input improvements, Microsoft continues its devotion to emojis by supporting Emoji 5.0. You can also hover your mouse over any emoji in the Emoji Panel and see its exact Unicode character name. The touch keyboard gets minor fixes, notably several that make it more accurate.

In this build, Microsoft updates the Task Manager yet again, this time with very minor changes to the layout of the new GPU performance tracker introduced in Build 16226. More Task Manager changes are on the way in future builds.

There have also been the usual bug fixes and exceedingly minor changes, including correcting a bug that sometimes caused the Network & Internet Status Settings page to indicate that a network was public even though it had been set to be private in the Control Panel.

What IT needs to know: IT staff who like to participate in the regular Bug Bashes that Microsoft holds will be pleased to know that the next one will start at 12:00 a.m. Pacific Daylight Time on Friday, July 14th and end a little over a week later at 11:59 p.m. Pacific Daylight Time on Sunday, July 23rd.

This build offers the first hands-on look at some of the new end-to-end security features to be officially released in the Windows 10 Fall Creators update, and so is well worth examining. To get a fuller picture of the security changes in store, go to "Announcing end-to-end security features in Windows 10” on Microsoft’s Windows 10 blog.

(Get more info about Insider Preview Build 16237.)

Windows 10 Insider Preview Build 16232

Release date: June 28, 2017

This build is all about security, and includes a host of new features designed to harden Windows against attack. Many of them were previously announced by Microsoft in a blog post outlining the new security features it will build into Windows 10 in the upcoming Windows 10 Fall Creators Update.

Windows Defender Application Guard, which integrates with the Microsoft Edge browser to protect against online malicious attacks and malware, has been updated so that favorites, cookies and saved passwords will be carried across Application Guard sessions.

With this build, you can also audit, configure and manage Windows system and application exploit mitigation settings from inside Windows Defender Security Center. Expect there to be potential issues with this right now; as Microsoft warns, "remember that Exploit Protection is a work-in-progress and might not be fully functional just yet.”

The build also has a new feature called "Controlled folder access” in Windows Defender, which protects data against attacks, including ransomware. This feature monitors changes that applications make to files in protected folders. When an application tries to make a change to the files, and the application has been blacklisted by the feature, you’ll get a notification about the attempt, and the files won’t be allowed to be modified.

In addition to the security changes, there are a variety of bug fixes in this build, including one that caused Word 2016 to crash if you attempted to ink in it, and one where auto-complete in the URL bar of Microsoft Edge failed on some devices.

What IT needs to know: This build offers the first hands-on look at some of the new end-to-end security features to be officially released in the Windows 10 Fall Creators update, and so is well worth examining. To get a fuller picture of more security changes in store, go to "Announcing end-to-end security features in Windows 10” in Microsoft’s Windows blog.

(Get more info about Insider Preview Build 16232.)

Windows 10 Insider Preview Build 16226

Release date: June 21, 2017

This build offers a variety of changes throughout Windows, particularly in Microsoft Edge. You can now more easily close tabs in Edge, because the X for closing them is always available, even if a javascript dialog such as an alert is showing. There are also a host of changes to Edge’s EPUB reader, including better integration with Cortana so that you can, for example, do research while reading an EPUB book. If you have a touch device, you can write notes in a book. The build also tweaks Edge’s Favorites feature in several ways, including letting you view favorites as a directory tree.

Emoji fans will be pleased to see that the build support the latest Unicode updates, including new snacks, actions, dinosaurs and fantasy characters like genies, fairies and zombies. All are accessible from the touch keyboard and Emoji Panel.

The touch keyboard now supports "shape writing” for more languages. In shape writing, you can swipe your fingers across letters instead of tapping them, which makes for faster text input. The keyboard also adds text predictions for more languages.

Those who use Task Manager to track the performance of their PC get a new feature to obsess over: It tracks your GPU use. Find it on the Performance tab, where you’ll see GPU utilization information for each GPU component (such as 3D and Video encode/decode) and graphics memory usage statistics. If you head over to the Details tab, you’ll see GPU utilization information for each process. (Note: Microsoft warns that this feature might be buggy, so expect some problems with it.)

The overall Windows shell gets a few tweaks, including the ability to share a file in File Explorer via the right-click context menu. Beyond that, there are small tweaks in the Calculator, Settings, ease of access and other places. There is also a long list of bug fixes, including for one that prevented PDFs from opening in Microsoft Edge on some devices with enterprise configurations.

What IT needs to know: IT admins can now configure Edge favorites by using group policy and mobile device management, including defining and locking preconfigured favorites in addition to the user’s favorites.

For security reasons, Microsoft is continuing its several-year process of removing the SMB1 networking protocol from Windows by default, in order to reduce the "attack surface” of Windows 10. All Enterprise and Education editions now have SMB1 uninstalled by default. In Home and Professional editions, though, only the SMB1 server component is uninstalled by default, but the SMB1 client remains installed. Note that the removal of SMB1 means the legacy Computer Browser service is being removed as well, because it cannot function without SMB1.

(Get more info about Insider Preview Build 16226.)

Windows 10 Insider Preview Build 16215

Release date: June 8, 2017

Addendum: As of June 13, a new feature called OneDrive Files On-Demand is being made available to Windows Insiders in the Fast Ring who are on Build 16215. With Files On-Demand, OneDrive users can see and access all of their files in the cloud, even if those files aren’t on their local computers. The online files can be opened in the same way as any local file, by using desktop applications, Windows Store apps or File Explorer.

OneDrive Files On-Demand is being rolled out in waves over several days to Windows Insiders in the Fast Ring who are on Build 16215. It can also be downloaded and installed from Microsoft.

June 8 release: This build offers many minor changes throughout Windows. It shows off a new user interface for the Start menu and the Action Center, which use some elements of Microsoft’s new Fluent Design System, a design language which the company announced at its Build 2017 event in May. The Start menu can now be resized diagonally, and it’s easier to resize it because you can more easily "grip” the edge of the frame. The Action Center’s new interface separates information more clearly and better differentiates categories of information.

Microsoft Edge has received minor improvements. Favorite websites can be pinned to the taskbar, e-books can be annotated in Microsoft Edge, and PDFs get more highlight colors. Cortana has received small improvements as well, including the ability to use your computer’s camera to perform actions such as taking a picture of a flier for an upcoming event and creating a reminder based on it.

In addition, improvements to the touchscreen handwriting recognition feature make it easier to write longer pieces of text and correct handwritten mistakes within the handwriting panel. And anyone who has ever misplaced a pen for their touchscreen will welcome the new Find my Pen feature, which shows you where you were the last time you used it on your computer.

It’s also now easier to enter emoji on your keyboard. And a new touch keyboard was introduced on the Desktop, which offers improved text prediction and a new settings menu.

The Windows shell has seen new work as well, including making it easier to share links in the Share user interface. Settings gets several deeper features, notably new video playback settings and a new context menu for Wi-Fi networks.

A host of other overall improvements focus on Narrator, the Gaming bar, ease of access, and fonts. There are also the usual assortment of minor changes, improvements and fixes to bugs, such as Microsoft Edge crashing when enabling or disabling extensions.

What IT needs to know: This build improves the ability of Task Manager to accurately show resource attribution, resource management, and fault tolerance. You can now run Bash on Windows without having to use Developer Mode. And when you’re using Hyper-V, you can now see your machine’s battery status.

(Get more info about Insider Preview Build 16215.)

Windows 10 Insider Preview Build 16199

Release date: May 17, 2017

This minor build includes several new features for the My People app. You can pin your favorite contacts to the taskbar and see emoji from your pinned contacts. Pinned contacts also display counters for messages you haven’t yet read from them. And you can now share files with contacts by dragging and dropping files onto pinned contacts, which creates an email message to the contact with the file attached.

The build also includes several minor changes to settings, notably the addition of a health section that pulls information from the Windows Defender Security Center, making it easier to see the overall health of your PC in a quick glance.

Beyond that are the usual assortment of minor changes, improvements and bug fixes, such as Windows Defender Security Center not flagging disabled drivers as issues.

(Get more info about Insider Preview Build 16199.)

Windows 10 Insider Preview Build 16193

Release date: May 11, 2017

The big news in this build is the release of Story Remix, a major upgrade for the Windows 10 Photos app. It lets you mix together photos, videos, music, transitions, inking and 3D objects to create "stories” -- essentially, screen shows on steroids. It does more than that, though: It also will create these stories itself, at your bidding. So, for example, you can click the Remix button for a collection of photos or videos, and Remix will put together a suitable soundtrack, transitions, and so on. You can then edit what Remix has done.

Story Remix uses what Microsoft says is "deep learning and AI” to tag people, places and things, so they're easier to find via search.

Beyond that, this release offers the usual assortment of minor changes, improvements and bug fixes, such as making the Settings app more stable so it doesn’t crash when navigating to Settings > Personalization > Lock screen.

(Get more info about Insider Preview Build 16193.)

Windows 10 Insider Preview Build 16188

Release date: May 4, 2017

This build features several improvements for Microsoft Edge’s PDF reader. The reader now lets you fill in PDF forms and annotate PDFs. The app's navigation has also been improved, and you can also finally rotate PDFs.

Edge also gets a security improvement: The Windows Defender Application Guard, which offers increased protection against malware and Zero Day attacks. There’s also a related change that anyone who has ever been confused about Cortana’s settings will be pleased to see: Cortana settings are now available in the Settings app, rather than separately.

This build also includes a variety of minor changes, improvements and bug fixes.

(Get more info about Insider Preview Build 16188.)

Windows 10 Insider Preview Build 16184

Release date: April 28, 2017

This build introduces a new feature called My People that Microsoft promised was on the way last October, but that was delayed until after the Creators Update. My People is a social app that lets you pin your favorite people to the taskbar, and makes it easy to contact them in a variety of ways, including the ability to share files and photos, chat, and include emojis. The app remembers the way you've shared with each person previously and uses that method each time afterwards, unless you decide to change it.

There are also a variety of minor changes, improvements and bug fixes for the OS, including the ability to disable the Night Light feature (which reduces the amount of blue light produced by your display).

(Get more info about Insider Preview Build 16184.)

Windows 10 Insider Preview Build 16179

Release date: April 19, 2017

This early build has few changes in it. A new feature introduces automatic checkpoints to Hyper-V for developers so that they can easily undo mistakes by being able to always revert to the last time they started a virtual machine. Power throttling, which can save up to 11% in CPU power consumption, has been turned on. There are also a variety of minor changes, improvements and bug fixes.

(Get more info about Insider Preview Build 16179.)

Windows 10 Insider Preview Build 16176

Release date: April 14, 2017

Because this is an extremely early build of the next upgrade to Windows, there are no noticeable new features. Microsoft has mainly worked on OneCore, which is the heart of the operating system that works not just on the PC version of Windows 10, but also on Windows 10 Mobile, Windows Server, Xbox 10, Windows 10 IoT and the HoloLens operating system. There are some very minor changes and bug fixes. The Narrator, which had been broken in the build 16170, now works, for example.

(Get more info about Windows 10 Insider Preview Build 16176.)

Windows 10 Insider Preview Build 16170

Release date: April 7, 2017

Well, that didn’t take long, did it? Even before the official rollout of Windows Creator Update, Microsoft released the first preview build update for the next upgrade to Windows 10, due out by the end of the year.

Given that it’s the earliest public build of the next upgrade, there’s very little new here, only the most minor of bug fixes, such as an update to the share icon in File Explorer. However, there are a number of known issues with the build. Narrator doesn’t work in it, for example, and some apps and games may crash. So if you decide to try it, proceed with caution.